State GST bill passed by Maharashtra Assembly

On the last day of a special session of the state Legislature, the Maharashtra Assembly passed the State Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill on May 22 . Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis thanked everyone for their cooperation after the passage of the bill in the Lower House.

“All political parties had unanimity over the GST Bill. Today, this supreme House has unanimously passed this bill. I thank the House for this,” Fadnavis said.

The three-day special session began on May 20 to discourse and approve the obligation the bill, which aimed at to constitute the way for the national roll-out of GST on July 1 . During this session, the Assembly passed three bills, the State Goods and Services Tax Bill, related to the compensation to local authorities and a bill on the existing laws to be overturned, when the GST is expected to come into effect from July 1.

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said in the Assembly that the government would ensure GST did not hamper financial autonomy of local self government bodies. “The government has accepted the responsibility of compensation to local bodies for five years for the loss of revenue due to abolition of octroi and local body tax due to GST,” he said.

“It seems Patil is in a hurry to come back to power,” Mungantiwar also expressed criticism about former Finance Minister Jayant Patil of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over the latter’s speech in the House yesterday targeting the state government . Patil was a minister during 1999-2014 when the Congress-NCP combine held power in Maharashtra.